On this day in 1919, in Macon, Mississippi, on Choctaw land along the Noxubee River, taken by treaty in 1830, a white mob attacks Black residents, acting on reports that Black workers have been discussing labor action to demand better pay and working conditions. A city marshal and a deputy sheriff join the mob as it loots Black businesses and mercilessly beats Black townspeople, including a school principal. The mob orders Black people to leave Macon and never return. This poorly-documented event is one of many, nationwide, during the "Red Summer of 1919,” when waves of white supremacist terror claim hundreds of Black lives in dozens of American cities. In Macon, no one is prosecuted for the riots.

Today, 85% of the city’s population is Black.